Smugglers 2: Dimension Travel
by Gage39
Summary: A machine Bumblebee picks up transport him, Bulkhead, Optimus, Ratchet, and Prowl to the G1 verse.  However they are separated leaving the others to try and find Bumblebee and each other before he manages to destroy Earth.  Poor G1 characters!
1. Prologue: Grinder

Smugglers 2: Dimension Travel

Prologue: Grinder

Silence. Grinder loved silence. He thrived on it, wished it was the only sound in the universe. Unfortunately it wasn't meant to be. He flinched at the sound of yet more weapons firing. Why did they insist on firing those things at all times? Of course it could have something to do with the fact that there was a war going on. He couldn't understand it; why did they have to fight? Oh he knew why. Knew what each side claimed to be fighting for but he didn't buy it. They didn't have to fight. There were ways of avoiding war but deep down he knew the real reason why brother was fighting against brother, why thousands of innocent bots died everyday; it was because they wanted to fight. They enjoyed killing each other.

Grinder hated it. He hated the war; hated the violence and the killing but most of all he hated the noise. If he never heard the sound of a weapon powering up again it wouldn't be too soon. Which led to his latest invention.

Grinder was an inventor and a very successful one at that. Currently he was working on a time machine so that he could travel back in time to when there was no war, when Autobots and Decepticons lived in harmony and didn't shoot each other on sight. It didn't occur to him however that by going back in time he would have to re-live the war all over again.

He re-adjusted a piece of metal then sat back with a happy sigh. After working for two days straight with only an hour's break he was exhausted; but he was also ecstatic. He had finally finished the time machine and after some energon and much-needed recharge he would be ready to try it out.

* * *

><p>Two days later Grinder was ready. He had made arrangements for his belongings to be taken care of as he didn't plan on coming back. He looked around the ship one last time then entered the date on the time machine.<p>

He stepped back and waited. He didn't have to wait for long; all too soon a bright white light encompassed him, forcing him to shutter his optics. A few minutes later he un-shuttered his optics only to find himself on a very un-familiar looking Cybertron. Bots milled about in the streets laughing and talking like they didn't have a care in the world.

He could hear voices, several of them all talking at once but he didn't mind. At least there weren't any weapons firing he thought happily. He almost lost a gasket however when he heard a very annoying voice yell "Optimus Prime!" Grinder watched with wide optics as an orange-and-blue bot stormed across the street where he began arguing with a red-and-blue bot that was most definitely not Optimus Prime.

The world began to tilt dangerously and voices sound far-off. Grinder paid this no attention as his processor had begun stating facts and drawing obvious conclusions, namely that he wasn't on the same Cybertron that he had lived on for most of his life. As his world faded into black his only thought was; _Where the slag am I?_

A/N: Sorry the prologue's so short but I couldn't stretch it out any longer. The next chapter will feature Bumblebee, Bulkhead, Optimus, Ratchet, and Prowl.

A/N/N: 3 reviews before I post chapter one. Also; kudos to anyone who can figure out which dimension Grinder landed in!

A/N/N/N: If anyone doesn't understand what happened then I'll tell you: Instead of traveling back in time Grinder accidentally traveled to a different dimension.

A/N/N/N/N: Thanks to everyone who reviewed the first installment of 'Smugglers'. I would really like to get that many reviews on this one too if at all possible.


	2. Junkyard

Smugglers 2: Dimension Travel

Chapter 1: Junkyard

Being a smuggler was disgusting to say the least, Optimus Prime decided. Currently he was standing in the middle of a dump…literally. A very smelly dump. He looked around, mentally checking every bot's current position against their previous one. Prowl was carefully picking his way through a pile of garbage that wasn't as…icky as the rest, a disgusted look on his faceplate. Ratchet's curses could be heard all over the area as he accidentally stepped in a pile of something that Optimus wasn't sure he wanted to identify. Bulkhead was lifting up a heavy piece of metal while Bumblebee sat on his shoulder giving him directions.

"I wasn't aware that smugglers got their items from dumps," Optimus commented.

"Oh you'd be surprised where we get our stuff," Bumblebee said. "This is one of my favorite stops. It has some of the best stuff in the world. Although that spot where the Elite Guard tosses out their old or damaged weapons has some pretty good stuff too," he said thoughtfully.

"You robbed the…never mind. I don't really want to know," Optimus sighed.

"But you're a smuggler now," Bumblebee protested. "You're supposed to learn all the best spots for picking up stuff to sell."

"I'm not gonna sell broken-down junk to any bot," Optimus informed him.

"But it won't be broken when we sell it; not if we fix it up first."

Optimus sent the little bot a disbelieving look. "You mean to tell me that you're going to fix all of that," he gestured towards a pile of garbage that was threatening to bury the ship "then sell all of it to unsuspecting bots?"  
>Bumblebee thought about it then nodded his head eagerly. "Yep," he said cheerfully.<p>

"Do you even know what some of this stuff is?"

"Nope."

Optimus groaned, shaking his head. "I give up," he announced to no one in particular.

"There, Bulky," Bumblebee pointed at something and Bulkhead sighed in exasperation. Nevertheless he obligingly moved the debris that had been on top of it, revealing a heap of twisted metal and broken parts.

"What is that?" Prowl asked as he looked disdainfully at the pile.

"Junk," Ratchet replied, not looking up as he was still attempting to clean the, for lack of a better word, slime from his pedes.

Bumblebee's mouth fell open and he looked at them indignantly. "It's not junk," he growled.

"Then what is it?" Optimus asked.

Bumblebee opened his mouth then frowned and closed it again. "I don't know," he admitted a few minutes later.

"Then it's junk," Optimus said then winced when he recognized the look on Bumblebee's faceplate as the one that usually preceded his screaming fits.

"Just because they think it's junk that doesn't mean that it is. All that matters is what you think, Bee," thankfully Bulkhead came to the rescue. As the little bot's faceplate slowly smoothed out the others all heaved sighs of relief and looked gratefully at Bulkhead.

Listening to Bumblebee scream at the top of his vocal processor was not an experience any of them cared to repeat although, Optimus mused, it hadn't been that bad when his audio receptors had finally blown. That had been a blissful couple of minutes until Ratchet fixed them. After that little incident Ratchet had fixed their audio sensors so that the next time Bumblebee started screaming their sensors wouldn't blow. Well they shouldn't anyway but Ratchet didn't think that there any audio receptors in the entire world that were Bumblebee-proof. Optimus was inclined to agree with him.

His musings were interrupted by Bumblebee (who else) who appeared to begging as he was on his knees in front of Bulkhead. "Please, Bulky, please."

"We got enough stuff already, Bee. Where are we gonna put it all?"  
>Bumblebee thought for a moment then suggested, "Prowl's room?"<br>"I beg your pardon," Prowl began but was interrupted by Bumblebee.

"Please?" Bumblebee's optics got bigger and he blinked then sniffled.

_Bumblebee-1, Bulkhead-0,_ Optimus thought already knowing the outcome. Bumblebee would keep sniffling and blinking until Bulkhead eventually caved and gave in, as they all knew he would. Although they had been traveling together for three short months, Optimus and his two companions had quickly learned that while Bulkhead navigated the ship and talked to anyone they happened to run into it was Bumblebee who ran the ship. It was Bumblebee who spent hours on end pouring over maps plotting out the best course. Bumblebee was the one who somehow managed to always get the best price whether he was selling or buying.

Yet there were a lot of thing they didn't know. They didn't know why Bumblebee was the way he was. They didn't know what was behind the door at the end of the hallway that they all had the code for but had been threatened with death if they should try to enter. They didn't know how Bumblebee and Bulkhead met and became such good friends nor why the big green mech had taken Bumblebee from an asylum and why they were traveling together.

They didn't know these things but there some that they did know. For example they knew that sometimes Bumblebee had flashbacks of Before and when he did he wanted to be held by whoever was closest until the memories were gone again. They knew that if you messed with one you messed the other one as well (which was why none of them were ever allowed on Metallica again). They knew better than to let Bumblebee near anything even remotely dangerous when he was hyped-up.

Optimus was brought out of his musings by the sound of Bulkhead saying, "Ok, ok. We'll take it back with us. Just stop begging."

"Yippee!" Bee cheered, rising to his pedes he did a little victory dance.

It took three hours for them to load all of the stuff onto the ship. Afterwards they all collapsed in the rec room, Optimus vowing to never do that again while Bumblebee, literally, bounced off the walls. Optimus watched with wide optics as the little bot zoomed around the room, making whoever watched dizzy. 'Where does he get all that energy from?" Optimus asked in amazement.

Bulkhead shrugged. "I don't really know," he admitted. "But he gets like this a lot."

"We've noticed," Prowl said drily as he leapt onto the table to avoid getting hit by the streak of yellow.

"Too bad we can't bottle it and sell it," Ratchet commented. "We'd make a fortune."

Bee skidded to a stop so fast he left black marks on the floor. "Fortune?" he cried excitedly. "Where?" They all looked at each then burst out laughing. "What?" Bumblebee asked, looking even more confused when they began laughing harder than before.

Night came quickly, but not too quickly. Even Bumblebee didn't complain but jumped on Prowl's back, wrapping his arms around the ninja-bot's neck. Prowl said nothing, choosing instead to look annoyed but Optimus saw the small smile that briefly appeared then vanished just as quickly. However he did grasp Bumblebee's legs so the little bot wouldn't fall. Recently Bumblebee had started sleeping with of them and not just Bulkhead. It appeared Prowl was the lucky bot tonight.

Quiet descended upon _The Smuggler_ as they all slept peacefully, even Prowl although he had a mini-bot draped across his chassis. In one of the cargo bays a twisted heap of metal and spare parts began blinking. The slight movement of the ship knocked some of the pieces around, buttons were pressed and the machine was activated. A bright white light encompassed the ship then the light disappeared, taking along with it the former occupants of _The Smuggler._

A/N: Grinder is from the Transformers: Robots In Disguise universe and he traveled to the original TF:A universe.


	3. Where The Slag Are We?

Smugglers 2: Dimension Travel

Chapter 2: Where The Slag Are We?

A/N: Just to clarify: they landed in the G1 verse

Prowl woke early; he always did. He felt his chassis, trying to locate Bumblebee. Feeling nothing he began to roll over only to sit up in alarm, optics un-shuttering. Where was Bumblebee? He sat up moved to swing his legs over the berth when he froze suddenly and looked around. He was sitting in the middle of some strange organic stuff that looked an awful lot like the desert they had driven through on Earth that time. But he couldn't be on Earth; it was impossible.

He rose to his pedes, sinking slightly in the sand. He scowled at the small gritty particles already integrating themselves into his armor then magnified the range of his optics so he could see further. Just over the next sand dune he could make out a city with several organic lifeforms. He began walking towards it attempting to ignore the voice in his processor that was whispering 'Where is Bumblebee?'

* * *

><p>Prowl woke up early as usual. He lay on his berth, mentally going over all that he had to do that day. He had several reports to go over, Sideswipe and Sunstreaker were getting let out of the brig, he needed to get his bi-annual checkup and, barring any unseen complications, go on patrol then fill out a few more reports before going into recharge for the night. Mentally he nodded in satisfaction and un-shuttered his optics only to come faceplate-to-faceplate with a very unfamiliar bot. The two stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity but in reality was ten seconds then they both screamed at the top of their vocal processors. Prowl shoved the other bot off of him and onto the floor then charge his weapons, his battle computer already formulating a plan of attack.<p>

Mere seconds later the door opened and Ironhide burst in followed by Optimus Prime. "What the slag's goin on here?" the old warrior demanded, his weapons primed and at the ready.

"There is an intruder on the premises," Prowl stated, pointing to the corner where the mysterious bot was now huddled. Seeing that everyone's optics were now trained on him the bot whimpered and began shaking as he attempted to curl up tighter than he already was. At the sight of that Prime's faceplate softened he lowered his weapon.

"Prime, what are ya doin'?" Ironhide demanded as his leader began approaching the intruder.

"Look at him, Ironhide. He's scared to death," Prime answered, stretching out his servo in a friendly gesture.

"I must agree with Ironhide, sir," Prowl said. "It could be a trap."

Prime just ignored him and continued advancing on the yellow bot. "Hey," he said soothingly. "It's alright. I'm not gonna hurt you, okay? My name's Optimus Prime and…"

The intruder, who had perked up at his name, suddenly said "You're not Optimus."

"I'm not?" Prime had initially looked startled but now he just sounded curious.

"Nope," some of the tension eased out of his frame. "The Optimus Prime that I know is not quite that tall or big or impressive."

"Impressive?" Prime raised an optic ridge.

"Well you're kind of…what I mean is you've got sort of a….regal bearing about you and my Optimus doesn't."

"What's yours liked?" Prime asked gently.

"Nice," came the soft reply. "He's a little uptight but he is trying very hard to unwind. He's really good at doing the different voices when he reads a datanovel to me."

This time Prowl was the one who raised an optic ridge. The bot in the corner might be small but he was no sparkling.

"What's your name?" Prime asked, feeling the intruder was now calm enough to answer.

"Bumblebee."

Prowl resisted the urge to comm their Bumblebee and make sure he was still recharging.

"Who are they?" Bumblebee asked, gesturing towards the two bots he hadn't been introduced to yet.

"That's Prowl and Ironhide."

Bumblebee sniggered then burst out laughing. It took him a few minutes but when he had finally calmed down enough to speak he said, "Man I wish Prowl were her to see this. He'd offline just by looking at you!"

"I assume your Prowl doesn't look like him?" Prime asked unnecessarily.

"No," Bumblebee shook his head. "He's a whole lot skinnier especially since he doesn't have those wing things on his back plus he's gold and black."

Prowl looked affronted when bumblebee mentioned his 'wing things'.

"How did you get here?" was Prime's next question.

"I don't know," all the laughter suddenly disappeared from Bumblebee's faceplate making him appear lost and frightened. "I really don't know."

* * *

><p>Wet. Everything was wet. Optimus wasn't sure what awoke him, normally Bumblebee did that but today that wasn't the case. While he didn't mind waking up early he did mind waking up with his faceplate in a puddle of water. Resolving to kill Bumblebee if the little bot was behind this he sat up and un-shuttered his optics, Bumblebee's name dying in his vocal processor when he realized that he was no longer in his room, in fact he was no longer aboard <em>The Smuggler.<em>

He sat still for several minutes taking stock of his situation. He was sitting next to what appeared to be a small body of water. Also there was no sign of any of the others or the ship. Optimus sighed heavily but he wasn't as upset as he would have been three months ago. Living with Bumblebee had taught him that life was unpredictable and to go with the flow. Of course he doubted that Bumblebee had ever gone to sleep on his ship and woken up somewhere else entirely. Actually, on second thought, he probably had.

Thinking about Bumblebee made Optimus realize something. What if Bumblebee was here, alone? The mere idea caused Optimus to shiver, not from worry about Bumblebee, the little bot could take care of himself. No Optimus was scared for anyone unlucky enough to run into him. With that thought in processor the red-and-blue bot rose to his pedes and began scanning the surrounding area in a vain attempt to locate his companions. Finding nothing he chose a direction that looked well traveled, transformed, and went searching.

* * *

><p>Primus, his joints ached was the first thing on Ratchet's processor when he awoke. He reached out with his servo, trying to find the can of oil he kept next to his berth only to jerk wide awake when he encountered something sort of soft. Next to him was an organic creature that he identified as a cow from their visit to Earth a couple of months ago. As far as he knew cows were not native to space which meant that he must be on Earth. But how was that even possible? The last time he checked Earth was over two galaxies away and unless Bumblebee had recently developed technology that allowed the ship to jump from galaxy to galaxy in less than ten hours something else had happened. Something unexplainable.<p>

He groaned and somehow managed to maneuver his old frame into a sitting position and scowled at the cow who just looked at him. "What are you looking at?" he grunted. The cow just mooed and continued chewing the grass around them.

* * *

><p>Bulkhead knew something was wrong the second he came back online. Maybe it was the smell of fresh air or the fellow of the wind across his faceplate. Perhaps it was neither and instead the sharp object that was now poking him in the back. Either way he slowly un-shuttered his optics, not sure if he wanted to see his surroundings or not. Relief flooded him when he recognized Earth then confusion and worry set in. How did he wind up here? The last thing he remembered was falling into recharge so how did he get here?<p>

Slowly he lumbered to his pedes then looked around. He was in the woods, judging by the vast number of trees and the rock he had been laying on. He could see the minute differences between these trees and the trees on Earth, menaing that he wasn't on the same Earth that they usually went to. He wondered just how many Earths there were then decided that it didn't matter. What did matter was finding his friends, specifically Bumblebee. After that he could worry but not until then. Not until then.

A/N/N: 3 reviews.


	4. Searching

Smugglers 2: Dimension Travel

Chapter 3: Searching

"Well?" Prime asked anxiously.

Ratchet gave him an exasperated look. "You know this would go a lot faster if you would stop interrupting me and if he," Ratchet pointed a digit at Bumblebee who grinned unrepentedly, "would stop wiggling."

"But I don't want to be examined again," Bumblebee protested. "My Ratchet just examined me three days ago. He said I was perfectly healthy, well except for my processor of course, but other than that I'm just fine."

"Processor?" Ratchet immediately dropped Bumblebee's arm and started feeling his cranial unit.

"Hey get away from it!" Bumblebee managed to kick Ratchet's left optic, forcing the medic to back up a step. The mini-bot's right servo turned into an energon blade and he stood upright on the berth. "Don't come any closer," he ordered.

Ratchet sighed heavily and raised his servos in a placating gesture. After a brief hesitation Prime followed suit, the moving to stand next to Ratchet, both bots eyeing the third cautiously. "What're you going to do with us?" Prime deliberately kept his voice gentle, trying not to sound like a threat.

"Nothing," Bumblebee replied. "You haven't done anything to hurt me…yet. So until then I have no reason to harm you. I just don't like any bot in my processor except for my Ratchet but he is a very rare exception."

Prime was about to reply when the door opened and the twins walked in. "What's up?" Sideswipe called then came to an abrupt stop causing his brother to bump into him.

"Sideswipe you fragger what was that for?" Sunstreaker grumbled then saw the scene in front of him. "Oh that's why. Who's the mini-bot?"

"I'm Bumblebee are you are…?" the yellow bot eyed the two new bots cautiously.

"Oh I'm Sideswipe and this is my brother Sunny," the red mech explained in an attempt to be socialable.

"Why are you in here?" Bumblebee demanded.

"We just came in to annoy Ratchet," Sideswipe decided that, just this once, maybe it would be for the best if he told the truth.

Bumblebee suddenly grinned and turned his black into a servo. "In that case it's great to meet you. I like to annoy every bot too. It's fun."

For the first time that any bot could remember Sideswipe was dumbstruck. His mouth hung open, a million different thoughts running through his processor. This bot, this mini-bot, actually threatened Prime and Ratchet and not only that but he liked to annoy every bot else. This was a bot after Sideswipe's own spark. When he had sufficiently recovered enough to speak he said, "Sunny and I were fixing to play a prank on Prowl. Wanna join us?" Sunstreaker's mouth fell open and he stared at his twin in shock.

"Is Prowl the uptight one with wings on his back?" at Sideswipe's affirmative nod Bumblebee grinned. "Count me in! Someone needs to make that aft-head unwind." The three mechs then exited med-bay eagerly discussing different prank ideas to try out.

Once they were gone Prime and Ratchet turned to look at each other. "Prime," Ratchet said at last. "Are you sure that was a wise idea?"  
>"What do you mean?" Prime asked, slightly confused.<p>

"Well for starters we don't know anything about him. I mean for all we know he could be a Decepticon spy."

Prime raised an optic ridge. "A spy?" the disbelief in his voice could not be mistaken for anything else. "Bumblebee? The same Bumblebee who wouldn't let you anywhere near him until you did the hokey-pokey?"

Ratchet frowned. "Well when you put it like that, then no," he admitted. "He could be faking it though, Prime."

"I'll tell the twins to keep an optic out," Prime assured him, heading for the door but stopped and turned to look back at Ratchet. "And if he's not faking it?"  
>"The Primus help us all," Ratchet muttered.<p>

Prime laughed. "He's one bot, Ratchet. What harm could he do?"

* * *

><p>It was official; Ratchet hated cows. If he ever saw another cow again he was going to use his magnets and drop it down from very high in the sky and gleefully watch it fall. Ratchet suddenly frowned then groaned as he realized; <em>I've been spending too much time around Bumblebee.<em> Feeling something squishy beneath his pedes he sighed and looked down, seeing yet more cow poop on the bottom of his pedes. Slowly he wiped his pede on a patch of green grass then continued walking. He couldn't wait to get out of this cow pasture.

His optics lit up when he caught sight of a dirt road running alongside the fence and changed directions. He cleared the fence with ease and scanned the road, noticing that the majority of the tire tracks headed in one direction. Deciding to go that way as well, Ratchet accessed his memory banks and selected the correct file then transformed into his Earth alt mode. Once the transformation was complete he drove down the road, rejoicing that he had finally left all of those beast behind when suddenly he slammed on his brakes. There, directly in front of him, was a cow.

"You've gotta be kidding," he groaned.

* * *

><p>Wherever he was, Bulkhead decided, it was beautiful. Currently he was standing atop a hill overlooking a lake. The sun shone down, hitting the lake just right and making it appear that the water below was made of pure gold. Several trees stood around it, forming a protective circle like soldiers guarding a most precious treasure.<p>

Bulkhead wished Bumblebee were there to see it with him. The mini-bot would like to see that. Suddenly Bulkhead was hit with a wave of loneliness so strong that he was left gasping for several minutes. He missed them. He missed Optimus's expression of longsuffering, Prowl's ninja moves; he even missed Ratchet's grumbling but most of all he missed Bumblebee's craziness. The two of them had been together so long t hat if one wasn't nearby then the other one worried.

He sighed heavily and his shoulders slumped. Right then he was the picture of dejection. If Bumblebee had seen his friend he would have immediately set about attempting to cheer his big friend up. Later Bulkhead would swear that what happened next was not a trick of the wind but an absolute miracle. He heard Bumblebee's voice and it said, 'Come on, Bulky. Don't give up now; find me.' The voice sounded far-off but Bulkhead knew without a shadow of a doubt that it was his little buddy. He turned in the direction that it had come from and drove towards it, a new-found hope in his spark.

* * *

><p>Now Prowl thought himself a very reasonable and logical-minded bot. He was well versed in the art of ninja and practiced stealth daily. He had been a member of the Elite Guard for several years and before that he had been a spy and a very successful one at that. Therefore it was understandable that he grew a little…agitated (he didn't want to say worried) when he couldn't find any of his companions after thoroughly searching the city populated by organics for several hours. Finally he was forced to admit defeat. If they were anywhere in the city he would have found them by now. He was picking up several Cybertonian signatures but he had verified that they didn't belong to any bot that he knew. Leaning against the wall in the alleyway he couldn't help but wonder where they were and if they were all right.<p>

* * *

><p>He hated dirt. He really hated it. Optimus scowled at the dirt coating his sides and tires. It had already adhered itself to his inner workings and was threatening to choke his engine. At this rate it was a wonder that any of the vehicles driving past were even visible. Frankly he was surprised that Earth was known as the blue planet since he hadn't seen any water other than the small body he had woken up in.<p>

His tires twitched when another vehicle got a little too close for his comfort but other than that he did nothing, not wishing to alert the local organics to his presence. His engine rumbled threateningly as yet more mud was splashed on him, resolving to wash off in the next body of water he saw. Forget about blending in, he just wanted to be clean and stay that way.

Excitement flooded his body when he saw an oddly familiar yellow and black car ahead only to be disappointed when he realized it wasn't Bumblebee. Huh. He never thought he'd miss any bot as badly as he missed the mini-bot at the moment. He only hoped that Bumblebee wasn't wandering the strange planet all by himself.

A/N: 3 reviews please. Thank you for your reviews so far. I never expected this many but keep 'em coming!


	5. Pranking Prowl

Smugglers 2: Dimension Travel

Chapter 4: Pranking Prowl

Prowl was busy as usual. He was so engrossed in the data-chips he was working on that he didn't pay any attention to the quiet sniggers coming from outside his office or the even quieter sound of pedes tiptoeing across the floor. It was a shame he didn't check it out as he normally did. It would have saved everyone a lot of trouble.

Two hours later he was finally done going through the data-chips. He rose from his chair and stepped into the hallway. No sooner had he closed the door then he noticed the condition of the hallway. His jaw dropped and he could already feel his cranial unit beginning to smoke. Internal warnings began flashing and he knew that it was only a matter of seconds before he crashed.

Hurriedly he commed Prime and waited until the other bot had replied then he said, "Prime, I am about to crash. I'm outside my office." Shutting down his comm, thus cutting Prime off mid-sentence he looked around the hallway one more time. A sound caught his attention and he looked up, his optics widening. "Frag," he cursed then crashed onto the floor.

* * *

><p>"One bot huh?" Ratchet grunted from his position on the floor where he was looking the unconscious Prowl over. "How much harm could he do huh?"<p>

Prime didn't answer; he couldn't. He was, quite literally unable to speak. He couldn't even articulate a groan of exasperation. Shock had completely taken over all of his systems. All he could do was stand there and stare helplessly at what once was a pristine hallway but now resembled a…Prime actually wasn't sure what it looked like. As far as he knew no other place in the world looked that bad. At the sound of footsteps he somehow managed to turn his head and watched as Hound and Ironhide rounded the corner.

"What the slag?" Ironhide demanded, coming to a complete and sudden stop, Hound following his companion's example.

"What…what happened?" the big green mech asked hesitantly, not entirely sure if he wanted to know.

It looked like an entire paint factory had exploded. Various shades of paint, all bright colors, now decorated the walls which also…sparkled due to the glitter that had been liberally applied as well. There was so much confetti on the floor that it couldn't even be seen while many colorful banners fluttered proudly from the ceiling and doorframes. Written on the wall directly across from Prowl's office was a rather crude saying which was supposed to be a poem. It read:

P stands for Pregnant

R stands for Rachel

O stands for Overbearing

W stand for Wanton

L stands for luscious

But perhaps the most surprising sight was the unconscious Prowl who was covered with heart-shaped glitter and hot pink paint. A discarded bucket lay next to him, indicating it had come from above.

"Who…?" Hound stammered.

"The twins," Prime said in a hushed voice. "Along with Bumblebee."

"Bumblebee?" Hound said in shock, unable to wrap his processor around the thought that strait-laced Bumblebee had collaborated with the twins to make this…mess.

"What about me?" Prime was relieved to see their Bumblebee and not the other one. "What?" Bumblebee looked uneasy when noticed that all optics, excluding Prowl and Ratchet of course, were trained on him.

"Prime said you're responsible for this," Hound whispered.

"What?" Bumblebee looked shocked. "I didn't do this. How could I? I've been with Red Alert all day. Ask him."

"Excuse me but I think you've got the wrong Bumblebee," a new voice said and the other Bumblebee stepped into view. Prime groaned, supressing a whimper. It wouldn't do for the Autobot leader to be afraid of a mini-bot.

"There's only one Bumblebee," Ironhide grunted, seeming to have recovered from his earlier shock.

"Actually there are two," Ratchet corrected, rising from the floor.

"How?" Hound asked weakly.

"We're not sure yet," Prime reluctantly admitted.

"Bumblebee's don't just fall out of thin air," Ironhide argued.

"Well where else did he come from?" Ratchet demanded, looking very irritable.

"Hold it," Prime held up a servo. "We will continue this discussion later. Right now we need to discuss the more important issue of what to do now. Find the twins, have them clean up this mess then have them thrown in the brig, again."

"Why?" the other Bumblebee demanded, a frown forming on his faceplate.

"Because that's what happens when you play pranks," Prime said gently.

"But they're fun," Bumblebee protested, his faceplate screwing up even more than it had earlier. If any of his fellow shipmates could see him now they'd already be backpedaling but Prime didn't know that he was supposed to be scared of that expression so he paid it no mind.

Prime eyed the mini-bot warily as he said, "Not to Prowl."

Bumblebee took a deep breath then let out the loudest scream any of them had ever heard before. It was understandable however. He was in a strange place with bots he didn't know, he was hungry, tired and all he really wanted was to back onboard _The Smuggler_ safely enclosed in Bulkhead's arms with a fresh cube of energon before falling into recharge. So he was not to be blamed for having a temper tantrum in the middle of _The Ark._ His screams encompassed the ship and went far beyond it.

* * *

><p>A third search of the city revealed nothing. Prowl was just about to start his search elsewhere when he heard a sound; a very familiar sound. A small smile appeared on his faceplate and he headed towards the sound.<p>

Optimus was lost. He would admit that. He was ready to concede defeat when he heard it. He changed tactics and direction, not caring that he was now driving the wrong way. He had to find the source of that noise. It was imperative that he do so.

Ratchet had been in the middle of plotting how to destroy all cows on the face of the Earth when he heard it. Now he was speeding as fast as his old joints would allow, desperately trying to reach it.

Bulkhead was hiding behind an enormous rock in an attempt not to be noticed by the Decepticons mere inches away. He was silent, very silent. Well at lest he was until he heard the shrill scream. Immediately he transformed and zoomed past the startled Decepticons. He had more important things to worry about than some Decepti-creeps.

* * *

><p>"Can't you shut him up?" Ironhide yelled over the deafening noise.<p>

"Unfortunately no," Ratchet yelled back.

"Well do something," Ironhide begged.

Ratchet opened his mouth but before the medic could respond they heard the sound of tires squealing and seconds later a tall, slender black-and-gold Autobot appeared. He went straight towards Bumblebee and bent down on one knee, pulling the mini-bot close to him.

"Shh," he soothed. "It's okay, Bee, it's okay. Prowl's here now; he'll take care of it. Let it all out, Bee," he encouraged. "Let it all out." One servo rested on the back of Bumblebee's cranial unit while the other rubbed the mini-bot's back with soothing, circular strokes. The screams lessened and soon they could hear the sound of sobbing. The other bot continued to rub Bumblebee's back, whispering soothing words all the while until finally Bumblebee fell into recharge, curled up in the new bot's lap. Only then did he look up and he said, "I'm Prowl. I would like to apologize for any and all havoc Bumblebee has caused."

"That's all right," Prime sighed. "Is he all right?"

"Oh yes," Prowl nodded. "This is what happens when we leave him alone for long periods of time. Which is why we try not to do that but it was unavoidable this time."

"How did you find him?" Prime asked.

An amused look crossed Prowl's faceplate and he said, "I heard him screaming. You'd be surprised how far his vocal capacity can reach."

"Not after today," Prime shook his head. "Not after today."

"I suspect the others heard it as well and are no doubt on their way here now."

A/N: 3 reviews at least please. Tell me what you think of the prank, please.


	6. Reunions

Smugglers 2: Dimension Travel

Chapter 5: Reunions

Prowl's prediction came true for not even twenty minutes later Cliffjumper entered Prime's office and informed him that there was another Optimus Prime outside and he was demanding to see the Bumblebee that had shattered _The Ark's_ windows. Prime raised an optic ridge and looked questioningly at Prowl.

"Sounds like the troops have started to arrive," Prowl said, one digit tracing the back of Bumblebee's cranial unit.

"Show him in," Prime ordered. Cliffjumper nodded and left the room.

A few minutes later the door opened and another red-and-blue bot entered. He was shorter and not as broad as Prime. He looked anxiously around the room and looked immensely relieved when he saw Bumblebee who was still recharging in Prowl's lap. "Is he all right?" he asked worriedly.

"He's fine," Prowl assured him. "He's just a little worn out from his temper tantrum."

"That's good," the two looked at each other for a few minutes then turned to Prime.

"Optimus Prime," Prowl said, "meet Optimus Prime."

"There's another one of me?" Optimus looked slightly worried.

"That was my reaction too," Prime said with a smile. "Prowl, well your Prowl, was just telling me a little about where you came from."

"Is there another Prowl here too?" Optimus asked, having latched onto Prime's choice of words.

"Yes. Your Bumblebee terrorized him earlier."

"Sorry," Optimus apologized then "our Bumblebee? Don't tell me that there's two of him," he moaned.

"He's nothing like our Bumblebee," Prowl informed him. "In fact he's more like me than anyone else."

"Does that mean he hides in the rafters too?" Optimus sighed.

"Hides in the rafters?" poor Prime looked very, very confused.

Before they could answer him the sound of a very familiar voice drifted in from the hall. Optimus and Prime sprang to their pedes as the door opened and a very irate red-and-white bot stood in the doorway. "Where is he?" the new bot demanded.

"I'm so sorry, Prime," Cliffjumper apologized profusely from behind the intruder. "I asked him who he was but he just ignored me and headed this way."

"It's all right, Cliffjumper," Prime sighed. "I'm guessing that you're Ratchet?" he inquired.

"Yep," the bot grunted. "Where's Bumblebee?"

"Over here, Ratchet," Prowl said, looking slightly amused.

Ratchet walked over to the two, scanning Bumblebee all the while. "Needs some more rest then some energon," he grunted. "He'll be fine after that."

"How many more of you are there?" Prime asked, hoping there wasn't any more. _The Ark_ could only hold so many.

"There should just be one more," Optimus said. "Bulkhead's the only one who hasn't shown up yet but he should be here soon."

As if on queue _The Ark_ suddenly shook. "What was that?" Prime demanded.

The other three looked at each other. "Bulkhead," they said simultaneously.

"I would advise you to tell your guards to more," Prowl said. "Bulkhead will kill them if they try to stop him."

Prime nodded and hastily commed Ironhide and Cliffjumper, telling them to stand down.

Once again the door burst open only this time a big mech entered. "Where's Bee?" he demanded.

"I see you finally made it," Prowl said drily.

"Bee!" the relief on Bulkhead's faceplate would have been comical had not Prime seen it three times earlier that day.

"Shh," Prowl warned. "He's asleep and I don't think we want to wake him up before he's ready. You remember what happened last time?"

All four of them shuddered. "Never again," Ratchet vowed.

"Do the three of you have any idea how you wound up here?" Prime asked, realizing that they could discuss Bumblebee for the rest of their lives and still not be done.

"No," Optimus answered after exchanging glances with his companions. "The last thing any of us remember is falling into recharge then waking up here."

"Hmm," Prime frowned thoughtfully. "Perhaps we should talk too Perceptor and Wheeljack, our resident scientists and engineers. They should at least have a couple of theories if nothing else."

* * *

><p>Wheeljack was having a fantastic day, so far. One of his experiments had actually worked the first time he tried it, causing Perceptor's processor to crash. Wheeljack had spent the next hour attempting to revive his friend only for Perceptor to crash again a few minutes later when he realized that nothing had exploded. Finally Perceptor had stopped crashing and the two were now working on a cage that could hold Soundwave's cassettes should they ever capture one. It was about then that the door opened and Prime entered along with four unfamiliar bots behind him.<p>

"Hello, Prime," Wheeljack greeted, pushing the protective goggles he wore up onto the top of his head. "Who are they?" he gestured towards Prime's companions, not missing the Autobot symbol each one had on their chassis.

Prime grimaced as he said, "Wheeljack, Perceptor, I would like for you to meet Optimus Prime, Ratchet, Prowl, Bulkhead and Bumblebee."

The one called Bumblebee waved cheerfully at them from where he sat atop Bulkhead's right shoulder guard. Wheeljack and Perceptor stared at them in shock until Wheeljack finally managed to say, "Where are they from?" he asked.

"We don't know," Prime admitted. "According to them the last thing they remember is being on their ship then waking up here on Earth."

"This isn't our Earth," Bumblebee said suddenly. "Our Earth doesn't have any Autobots on it."

"Or Decepticons," Bulkhead added.

Wheeljack and Perceptor exchanged startled glances. "Are there Decepticons where you come from?" Wheeljack asked curiously.

"Some," Bumblebee answered. "But we kicked their afts three months ago when we killed Sentinel Prime."

Wheeljack gasped, a horrified look appearing on his faceplate. "You killed Sentinel Prime?" he stammered. "The Sentinel Prime who used to be leader of the Autobot forces? That Sentinel Prime?" his voice rose several decibels.

"No. I killed the Sentinel Prime that sold us out to the Decepticons and hired me to kill Ultra Magnus." Bumblebee answered, frowning.

Wheeljack opened his mouth only to discover that he was unable to speak, fortunately Perceptor didn't seem to be suffering from that particular affliction. "Sentinel Prime would never betray us," he said. "Never."

"Well he did," Bumblebee replied testily, not liking being called a liar.

It seemed that the two were fixing to start a fight right then and there but thankfully Prowl intervened. "Since we are different from our namesakes here isn't it logical to assume that every bot else would be different too?" he said.

"I hate logic," Bumblebee grumbled.

"So what do you bots do where you come from?" Wheeljack asked in a desperate attempt to keep Bumblebee and Perceptor from trying to kill each other.

They looked hesitantly at each other then Optimus replied, "We're smugglers."

"Smugglers?" Wheeljack was immensely grateful for his faceguard as he struggled not to laugh. It was a good thing the twins weren't there, they'd never let Prime heard the end of it. Judging by the look on Prime's faceplate he felt the same way.

"What's wrong with that?" Bumblebee looked slightly offended. "I used to be an assassin before The Accidnet."  
>"What kind of accident?" Wheeljack asked curiously, deciding that he didn't want to touch the assassin comment with a one-hundred foot pole.<p>

"An unfortunate one," was the reply.

A/N: 3 reviews please.

A/N/N: I'm terribly sorry if anybody seems out of character. I only watched a few episodes of G1 so I don't know how they act. I also have no idea what rolls Sentinel Prime and Ultra Magnus played on G1 so I'm just going to go with the new movies translation of them: Ultra Magnus used to be leader of the Autobots then Sentinel and now Optimus Prime. Sorry if it's not the same as on the show but I hope you still enjoy the story anyway.

A/N/N/N: For those of you who pointed out that Ironhide was in Prowl's quarters when they found TF:A Bumblebee let me just remind that they didn't find out Bumblebee's name until he was in medbay. All Ironhide knew was that there was an unidentifed bot on base; he didn't know who Bumblebee was.

A/N/N/N/N: Poketrainer did an illustration of the scene between Prowl and Bumblebee in the last chapter. The link to that drawng can be found on my profile page.


	7. A 'Perfect' Day

Smugglers 2: Dimension Travel

Chapter 6: A Perfect Day

"Maybe you traveled through time," Wheeljack suggested. They had spent an hour trying to figure out where the other bots had come from and were no closer to figuring that out then when they had started.

"Perhaps," Prowl conceded. "But that wouldn't explain why no one on our Earth has heard of Autobots."

"That's true," Wheeljack frowned then brightened. "What about an alternate reality?" he asked excitedly.

Surprisingly enough it was Bumblebee who answered this time. "Theoretically that's possible plus it would explain why some things are the same yet why they're so different at the same time. But it would take something astronomical to split time and space at the exact same time and transport us through before the special rift closed again," he said thoughtfully then noticed that all of them were staring at him. "What?" he snapped defensively.

"Nothing," Wheeljack said, his optics wide. "Nothing at all."

"I'm bored," Bumblebee whined. "Can I go play with the twins now?"

Prime exchanged glances with Bulkhead before reluctantly nodding. "Yes," he sighed "I'll comm. Prowl and have the twins meet you in the rec room."

Bumblebee grinned at him wildly before jumping down from Bulkhead's shoulder and zooming out of the room.

"You do realize how dangerous that was don't you?" Prowl inquired with a raised optic ridge.

"I know," Prime said. "I know. But I would far rather have him destroy the ship then scream again. Our Ratchet is still repairing audio sensors."

* * *

><p>The twins were bored; very bored. They were already back in the brig again which was a new record. But it was worth it, Sideswipe had to admit, if only to see the expression on Prime's faceplate when he saw the hallway. For one glorious moment Sideswipe had been convinced that his leader would crash too but alas it was not meant to be. Oh well. At least this prank was something to remember. The new Bumblebee knew some really cool pranks, most of them Sideswipe had never heard of before.<p>

He was jerked out of his musings by the sound of the cell doors opening. "You're free to go," Prowl said.

Sideswipe and Sunstreaker both stared at the tactician in disbelief. "Excuse me?" the red twin asked, wondering if he needed to comm. Ratchet and tell him that Prowl had finally lost it.

"You're free to go," Prowl repeated, looking even more pained then he had that time he found out he was being assigned to the same ship as the twins.

Still in shock the twins slowly left their cell, eyeing Prowl warily. "Why?" Sunstreaker grunted.

"Apparently the new Bumblebee threatened to pitch another fir if the two of you weren't allowed to hang out with him for the duration of his stay. You're supposed to meet him in the rec room."

Sideswipe and Sunstreaker exchanged stunned looks then hastily exited the room just in case Prowl changed his mind. "I knew I liked that bot for a reason," Sideswipe muttered.

Within a few minutes they had arrived at the rec room. Just as they were about to enter it the door opened and Red Alert came running out.

"What's wrong, Red?" Sideswipe asked, mildly curious.

"He's going to kill us!" Red Alert cried. It was then that the twins realized the security director was even twitchier than normal. An amazing feat all things considered.

"Who's going to kill us?" Sideswipe asked.

Red Alert's right optic twitched. "Bumblebee," he said. "The other Bumblebee."

The twins exchanged knowing glances. Ah, that definitely explained it. "Why do you think he's going to kill us?" Sunstreaker grunted in what, for him at least, passed for curiosity.

"He used to be an assassin," Red Alert whispered. "Sentinel Prime hired him to kill Ultra Magnus."

"What?" there was no use in denying the fact that Sideswipe was shocked beyond belief.

Red Alert nodded eagerly. "He'll kill us all one-by-one," he said in a low voice. "He'll sneak in while we're asleep and slit our throats."

The twins jumped in spite of themselves and that was when Sideswipe decided that what this conversation need was a little logic. While he usually wasn't very logical there were times when the situation called for it. This was one of those times. "Red," Sideswipe said slowly, "what makes you so sure that Bumblebee even has an energon sword? For all you know he could have a cannon!"

"Because I saw it," Red Alert said triumphantly. "When he threatened Grimlock I saw it."  
>"Threatened Grimlock?" Sideswipe said weakly.<p>

The security director nodded then said, "Now if you'll excuse me I need to check the perimeters again." With that he turned and walked down the hallway before disappearing.

Sideswipe and Sunstreaker exchanged terrified glances then hastily entered the rec room only to stop and stare in shock at the sight they were presented with. At the far end of the room was Grimlock, the Dynobot commander; that was no surprise. But what was surprising was the fact that he actually looked uneasy and was backing up. What was even more surprising was _who_ he was backing away from. Bumblebee (not their Bumblebee of course) was rapidly advancing on the Dynobot, his right servo now an energon sword.

"Is he crazy?" Sideswipe hissed.

"I think so," Sunstreaker replied.

Sideswipe ignored his twin and instead addressed Jazz. "What's going on?"

"Well apparently the new bot took Grimlock's seat so Grimlock 'politely' asked him to move. The other bot refused and well this is what happened," the special operations leader gestured to where the two bots were still facing off.

"I'm not sure who to feel sorry for," Mirage, who was sitting next to Jazz, confessed. "I've never seen anyone stand up to Grimlock let alone threaten him."

"That sounds like Bumblebee," Sideswipe sighed.

"Bumblebee?" Jazz and Mirage chorused in shock.

"Not our Bumblebee," Sideswipe hastened to explain. "His name is Bumblebee to but trust me, he's nothing like ours."

Jazz looked at the mini-bot who now had Grimlock backed into a corner and said, "I can see the difference."

* * *

><p>"Any ideas, Wheeljack?" Prime asked tiredly. They had been in the lab for over an hour now and quite frankly he was bored. If the glazed over optics and dazed expressions were anything to go by so were the new bots.<p>

No response. "Wheeljack!" Prime said sharply.

Wheeljack jumped and turned from the computer screen he had been browsing. "What," then "oh. No I haven't found anything yet. I have no idea how they wound up here or which dimension they came from. There are literally thousands, possibly millions, of other dimensions and even if I found a way to send them back how would I know which dimension to send them too? I could send them to the wrong one or…" Wheeljack was getting overly excited so Prime just nodded and valiantly tried to ignore the ache in his processor that had been growing all day.

Suddenly the door opened and Cliffjumper came in. "Sorry to barge in like this, Prime," he apologized. "But I thought you might like to know that we picked the Decepticons up on our scanners."

Prime groaned. "The perfect ending to a perfect day," he muttered.

A/N: 3 reviews please.


	8. Decepticons

Smugglers 2: Dimension Travel

Chapter 7: Decepticons

The Decepticons, Prime decided, couldn't have picked a worse time to attack. Not only were their forces stronger but now Prime had to contend with five new Autobots that he wasn't even sure if he could trust or not. He glanced behind him and saw that his troops, plus the other five, were still following him. He sighed heavily and prayed to primus that it was just a lone Decepticon or, better yet, a defector but somehow he knew that wasn't to be the case. And indeed it wasn't. When they finally arrived it was to find Megatron and what looked to be the entire Decepticon army. "Great," Prime sighed. "Just great."

"Why is it great?" The other Bumblebee asked innocently. "Shouldn't it be horrible or something like that?"

All the Autobots turned to look at the mini-bot, their optics wide and disbelieving expressions on their faceplates. "Is that bot for real?" Jazz asked.

"He's being sarcastic," the black-and-gold Prowl explained to his Bumblebee.

"Oh," the little bot absorbed that then said, "what's the point of being sarcastic? Why not say what you're really thinking?"

"We'll discuss that later," Optimus promised.

Bumblebee nodded then turned to Prime. "Why don't you just blow them all to smithereens?" he suggested.

"Because," Sideswipe began then frowned and turned to Prime. "Why don't we just blow them up?"

"Because," Prime explained. "We're Autobots. We don't do that kind of stuff."

"I don't see why not," Bumblebee grumbled. "It would be a whole lot easier not to mention fun."

Optimus sighed and rubbed a servo over his faceplate. "Bumblebee," he said wearily.

"Ok, ok. I'll behave."

"I'm terribly sorry about this," Optimus apologized, turning to his counterpart. 'We'll help in whatever way we can."

"Thank you," Prime said. "I assume all of you know how to fight?"

The five exchanged glances then Optimus nodded. "Yes we all know how to fight," he said.

"Good," Prime sighed. "Well I suppose we better start fighting." With that the Autobot commander transformed, his weapons coming online.

The rest of the Autobots quickly followed suit then walked behind Prime as he led them onto the battlefield.

"Well look who it is! The Autobots finally made it!" Megatron looked and sounded bored.

"Hey, 'Screamer, is that your faceplate or did you get a tailpipe stuck up your aft?" Sideswipe called jeeringly.

"Why you little!" Starscream started forward and had to forcibly be held back by the other members of his trine, Skywarp and Thundercracker.

"They are going to be the death of me one day, I just know it," Prime muttered.

"If it's any consolation I know exactly how you feel," Optimus said from behind him. "There are days when I feel like Bumblebee is out to get me and then…well I don't know," he shrugged helplessly.

Prime understood what his counterpart was trying to say and he nodded in thanks.

"Decepticons," Megatron ordered, "attack!"

Immediately the Seekers launched themselves into the air and began firing.

"Autobots, attack!" Prime ordered even as he began firing.

"This is the best part of the whole week!" Sideswipe yelled cheerfully.

"Just shut up and fight!" his yellow twin ordered.

"Why shut up when you can do both?" Bumblebee suggested, cutting off a Decepticon's head.

"Hey that's a good idea," Sideswipe cried then turned to his twin. 'Don't you think that's a good idea, Sunny?"

The psychotic yellow mech took the time to kill a Decepticon before answering his idiotic brother. "It's a much better idea for you to pay attention to what's going on around you then talkin to crazy there," he gestured towards Bumblebee then frowned when he realized that was pointing at their Bumblebee. "Where'd the crazy Bumblebee go?" he asked.

Meanwhile the crazy Bumblebee was on top of Starscream laughing manically as the Seeker desperately tried to shake him off.

"Get offa me!" the flier raged as he did another barrel roll, but no avail.

"What is he doing?" Prowl demanded, his door wings twitching as he watched the spectacle in the sky.

"I think he's enjoying himself," a new voice said.

Prowl spung around and came faceplate-to-faceplate with a slender black-and-gold bot.

"Who are you?" the tactician demanded.

"You or rather your counterpart," the bot answered, looking rather amused.

"I'm Prowl."

"So am I."

The two stared at each other before the gold Prowl said, "Might I suggest we target the ground mechs? Specifically the ones that aren't high up in the chain of command?"

"Why? It isn't logical. We should target the high-ranking officers first," Prowl protested.

"But if we kill all the soldiers then the officers will have to fight twice as hard and they will be distracted, thus giving us an opportunity to get closer than normal," his counterpart argued.

"That's brilliant and quite logical too I must admit. Do you think you can handle those over there?" the tactician gestured to a group of five Decepticons who were beating the slag out of Beachcomber.

"Of course," the slender bot sounded offended and withdrew a small gold projectile from his armor then threw it. One of the Decepticons shrieked and fell down, the projectile returning to Prowl's servo.

"Impressive," his black counterpart said then returned to fighting.

"That bot's crazy," Sunstreaker declared.

"I know, isn't he great?" Sideswipe beamed.

It was then that Bumblebee happened to look down. "Hey, twins," he cried happily. "This is fun!"

"Look, Sunny, there's two extra fliers. Can we?" the red mech begged.

"I take it back; you're both crazy," Sunstreaker muttered then heaved a sigh. "Okay, Sides, we can help Bumblebee with the fliers."

A few minutes later cries of, "Jet-Judo!" rent the air along with curses and shrieks from the Command Trine. Skywarp tried warping but no avail; Sideswipe merely clung tighter to the Seeker while his brother dug his digits into Thundercracker's wings causing the flier to yelp in pain. Bumblebee was still atop Starscream much to the Decepticon second-in-command's dismay who was still trying to throw the mini-bot off.

"You're insane!" Starscream yelled.

"I know," Bumblebee cried then, turning his right servo into a sword and his left into a stinger, drove both weapons into the Seeker's wings. Starscream screamed in agony as his right wing was now dangling by a thread and his left was numb. Rapidly he plummeted down, shrieking at the top of his vocal processor.

Bumblebee jumped off the flier, landing on Bulkhead's shoulder, startling both the big green mech and the Decepticon he was fighting. Bulkhead took advantage of the distraction and sent the Decepticon flying across the desert and into a pile of rocks.

"You might want to move," Bumblebee advised. Bulkhead looked up and saw the injured Decepticon that was hurtling straight towards them and hastily moved out of the way.

"Incoming!" someone yelled. Every bot looked up then turned tail and ran so that they weren't in the line of fire. Every bot that is except for Megatron. The Decepticon leader stood there; supremely confident that he wouldn't be hit. Decepticons and Autobots alike all winced as Starscream collided with Megatron, both bots sliding a good twelve feet before they stopped, the impact leaving a deep trench in their wake. There was complete and utter silence for several minutes as they absorbed what they had just seen. The silence was eventually broken by the sound of Starscream moaning in pain.

The moan snapped the twins out their shocked reverie and they exchanged glances as they realized what Bumblebee had been up to; they decided to follow suit. Sideswipe used his sword to chop one of Skywarp's wings halfway off while Sunstreaker took care of disabling Thundercracker. The two mechs hung on for dear life as their rides plummeted towards Earth. Once they were close enough to make out the stunned expressions on their teammates' faceplates, the proud one on Bumblebee's and the exasperated one on Prime's they let go of the fliers and jumped to the ground, just barely missing both of the Prowl's.

They watched as Skywarp and Thundercracker crashed into Megatron and Starscream, both of whom had just stood back up.

"Wow," Sideswipe said, wincing as the four Decepticons came to a stop against some jagged rocks. "That had to hurt."

"That was fun," the crazy Bumblebee cried. "Can we do that again?"

"No," Optimus and Prime said at the exact same time causing every bot, except for the Prowl's, to snigger.

"We need to gather up the injured and head to the ship where both of the Ratchet's can patch them up." Prime said, eyeing the Decepticons cautiously.

"You may have won today, brother, but the war is far from over," Megatron hissed then the Decepticons transformed, well most of them did, and soon had disappeared into the distance.

The Autobots slowly made their way back to the ship, feeling exhilarated by their victory.

A/N: 3 reviews please.

A/N/N: The next chapter will be extremely late tomorrow night as I am going shopping tomorrow and then to the movies.


	9. Ratchet, Bumblebee, & Plotting

Smugglers 2: Dimension Travel

Chapter 8: Ratchet, Bumblebee, & Plotting

Ratchet wasn't happy. His wonderful day had started at an un-Godly hour of the morning when an intruder had been discovered in Prowl's private quarters, then he was threatened by a minibot of all things, tended to an unconscious Prowl, and had spent the past three hours fixing broken audio sensors. Now to top it all off he had been introduced to another Ratchet who was supposedly his counterpart from another dimension.

The two medics stood facing each other in a silent showdown. Prime had introduced them then had made a hasty retreat. Neither Ratchet had moved since then. The tension that filled the air was so thick you could've cut it with an energon sword. Both Bumblebees had poked their heads in earlier only to retreat as well. Beachcomber, who was still in need of medical treatment after the beating he had received at the servos of the Decepticons, lay perfectly still on his berth, too frightened to say a thing. Normally he would have asked if they were just going to ignore him all day but one look at the identical murderous expressions on their faceplates had convinced him that it would be far more hazardous to his health than any number of Decepticons. So he stayed silent and nervously watched the stand-off.

Finally one of the Ratchet's spoke. "Your med-bay looks pitiful," he grunted, almost causing Beachcomber's processor to crash as he propped himself up on his elbows. Nobody, and he meant nobody, insult Ratchet or his med-bay and lived to tell about it.

True to form Ratchet straightened, a feral look crossing his faceplate. "Well excuse me for not keepin it up to your standards but out here we're fighting a war in case you forgot so supplies a running low right now."

"As I was saying," his counterpart continued, "your med-bay looks pitiful but mine looked terrible."

Ratchet raised an optic ridge. "Your med-bay?" he questioned, trying not to sound curious.

"We had a Great War too," the other medic explained, but ours ended a long time ago. Your med-bay looks well-stocked compared to mine."

Mollified Ratchet said, "Well I am a little quick to react to what someone says without listening to the whole thing," he confessed.

"I've got the exact same problem," the other Ratchet admitted.

The shock of hearing his Ratchet actually apologize to another bot proved to be too much for Beachcomber; the poor mech finally crashed. Startled, both Ratchets turned then quickly rushed to help the unconscious mech.

* * *

><p>Bumblebee was quiet. In and of itself it wasn't that unusual as the minibot was a spy which meant he spent the majority of his time observing others. Today however he wasn't observing anyone but was merely mulling over the actions of a specific bot; the Bumblebee that had appeared on top of Prowl earlier that morning. It was quite to clear that the other Bumblebee was insane; even the twins thought so. Yet no matter what sort of insane stuff the little bot did, no one got mad at him. His friends didn't seem to care what he did. That was no surprise to Bumblebee; that was how most of the Autobots were, especially Ironhide who had raised him. What did surprise him however was the crazy Bumblebee himself. How could someone so crazy be so happy? That was the rux of Bumblebee's dilemma; the other minibot was genuinely happy the way he was. He didn't seem to care tha he was a full-grown bot acting like a sparkling. He just didn't care.<p>

Bumblebee was brought out of his musings by a voice saying, "This seat taken?"

Startled, the spy looked up and saw the very bot he had just been thinking about. "This seat isn't taken," he scooted over on the couch and the other bot plopped down next to him.

"I thought that since everyone else had spoken to their counterparts I should probably talk to you," he said, looking at the floor.

"Oh ok."

They sat like that for several minutes until suddenly, "I didn't always use to be like this."

"I beg your pardon?" Bumblebee was genuinely confused.

"Like this. You know, crazy."

"Oh," Bumblebee lapsed into silence again, then, what happened? If you don't mind my asking."

"I don't mind but to be perfectly honest I don't really remember. My memory's really…spotty right about there but sometimes if I concentrate really hard I can see flashes."

"What do you see?"

"Rocks. There were a lot of rocks; a flash of green that didn't belong there. I might not remember much about that day but I do know that I wasn't supposed to be there. It wasn't an accident; of that I'm positive but it wasn't meant for me. Someone else was supposed to be there that day, not me. Bulkhead doesn't like to talk about it but The Accident was supposed to be for him."

"You went in his place," Bumblebee said with sudden comprehension, puzzles pieces clicking into place.

"What makes you say that?" the other minibot asked, laughing weakly.

"Because that's the kind of bot you are," Bumblebee replied firmly.

His counterpart looked thoughtful for a moment then smiled. "No," he said. "That's the kind of bot we are."

Bumblebee watched as the insane minibot rose then danced his way to Bulkhead who immediately scooped him up in a massive servo. Bumblebee watched and decided that maybe loosening up a little bit wouldn't be so bad. It would be fun to play a couple of tricks on Prowl, either one of them. A grin slowly spread across his faceplate causing Mirage, who had just entered the rec room, to turn around and walk back out. Bumblebee's grin grew even wider. This could turn out to be a lot of fun.

Darkness descended rather quickly on _The Ark_ that night. As there were no extra berths some rather unique sleeping arrangements had to be made. The Prowl's thought it would be logical if they shared a room, both Ratchet's and Beachcomber (who was still recovering) had laid claim to med-bay, so the crazy Bumblebee and Bulkhead were recharging in the injured Autobot's quarters as he had no need for it, while Prime and Optimus were enjoying the peace and quiet of Prime's private quarters.

* * *

><p>Despite the fact that almost every bot else was attempting to recharge the twins were still wide awake. Or, more accurately, Sideswipe was still awake plotting on a way to best the prank they had played on Prowl while poor Sunstreaker tried in vain to ignore his brother and recharge; it wasn't working. The yellow mech was strongly tempted to ask their Bumblebee if he would mind a roommate for the night. In fact he was just about to when Sideswipe yelled "Eureka!" and turned out the lights. Slightly uneasy but still profoundly grateful Sunstreaker fell into recharge while his brother grinned evilly and commed the crazy Bumblebee. "Want to play a great prank?" he asked.<p>

"Of course" was the rapid response. After agreeing to meet Sideswipe in the rec room Bumblebee commed his counterpart and posed the same question he had just been asked.

"Okay," the non-crazy Bumblebee agreed.

A/N: 3 reviews and sorry that this chapter is so late.


	10. Jazz & The Grand Prank

Smugglers 2: Dimension Travel

Chapter 9: Jazz & The Grand Prank

The moment Bulkhead woke u he knew something was wrong. He knew because of two thins; one, Bumblebee was no longer in the room and two, he had this peculiar feeling in the bottom of his tanks that always preceded events such as the re-arranging of Ratchet's med-bay of the infamous 'pink Prowl' incident. The mere thought of that made Bulkhead shudder. It had taken three days and ten coats of gold paint before Prowl had looked remotely like himself and a week before he would even speak to Bumblebee again.

No matter how hard the big green mech tried to focus on something pleasant it was to no avail. The uneasy feeling he had was actually intensifying so he thought it best to get up and have some energon hopefully before he had to deal with anything. Hopefully but somehow he doubted it.

* * *

><p>Jazz was having a wonderful day. Well at least he used to be. The blue-and-white mech scowled at the flashing consoles and cursed loudly in every language that he knew ending with "Slag!" He ignored the beeping that indicated someone was trying to hail him; he knew who it was and he had no desire to speak to them. "What's the big deal?" he grumbled. "How was I supposed to know she was his daughter?" The sounds of weapons blast urged him to hurry up and leave that planetary system. Only when he was four planets away did he lean back and let out a loud sigh of relief.<p>

He fiddled with some dials then smiled broadly as music began to play all over the ship. He turned the autopilot function on before getting up and heading towards the engine room where he had some much needed repairs to take care of.

* * *

><p>Wheeljack frowned, doubling checking to make sure that he had looked underneath the workbench. He could've sworn that he placed his new device right next to his computer. He shrugged. Oh well. It wasn't like it could cause any harm, right?<p>

* * *

><p>"Good morning, Bumblebee," Optimus greeted as he and his counterpart entered the rec room.<p>

"Hey, Optimus!" Bumblebee was rather…hyper that morning. It was never good when the little bot got hyper. By midday he would be squawling and be very bad-tempered for days afterwards.

"Good morning, Prime!" Bumblebee sang out.

"Good morning, Bumblebee," Prime said then came to a sudden halt as he slowly, reluctantly turned his head. There were two identical Bumblebee's sitting at the table next to him. Concerned, Optimus turned to look at Prime only to catch sight of the Bumblebee's and he too froze.

"What is going on here?" a voice demanded. They turned to see both Prowl's standing behind them.

"Slag," Optimus cursed.

The gold Prowl raised an optic ridge. "The situation can't be that bad, Optimus," he chided.

"I'm afraid I have to disagree with you on that, Prowl," Optimus stepped back, allowing the Prowl's to see the horrific sight.

Both Prowl's jaws dropped, then their heads started smoking. Seconds later they collapsed on the floor.

"Cool," one Bumblebee said.

"Awesome," the other said then they high-fived each other.

"I swear Primus hates me," Prime muttered, pinching his noseplate.

"I understand exactly how you feel," Optimus sighed. "Believe me, I know."

The door to the rec room opened and both Optimus and Prime spun around only for their jaws to drop in disbelief. Standing directly in front of them were two Sunstreaker's. "What's up?" both bots grunted in Sunstreaker's cold, unfeeling voice. It was then that Optimus and Prime crashed.

* * *

><p>An hour later Jazz stretched; hearing his joints creak the mech scowled. "Primus, I'm getting old," he muttered. He rose to his pedes, greateful that all of the repairs were now complete and, barring any unforeseen problems, he could now spend the rest of the day laying back and listening to his tunes. A beep interrupted his internal musings and a frown began to appear on his faceplate only to be replaced seconds later by a wide grin.<p>

"I don't believe it!" he exclaimed happily. "Who woulda thought I'd run into Bumblebee again so soon. Well I know what I'll be doin for the rest of the day then." Hurriedly he exited the engine room and headed towards the control room, already preparing himself to be ready to face Bumblebee.

* * *

><p>Ratchet knew something was up the minute the crazy Bumblebee came in and said that not only had both of the Prowl's crashed but Prime and Optimus as well. Now he didn't know the younger Optimus Prime that well but he knew Prime and he knew for a fact that his old friend had only crashed once or twice before. So he narrowed his optics suspiciously as he and his counterpart followed the minibot back to the rec room which was almost deserted. That wasn't very surprising as it was still very early and most bots were still recharging.<p>

Once in the rec room neither Ratchet bothered looking around the room but instead hurried to the unconscious bots lying on the floor. Ratchet knelt next to Prime while the other Ratchet knelt beside his Optimus. "Why'd they crash?" Ratchet demanded.

"Well," Bumblebee began. "You see it's like this…"

"We played a little prank on them," the other Bumblebee finished.

Ratchet nodded in understanding then suddenly froze as something occurred to him. Both Bumblebee's had spoken but he had heard only one voice. Slowly he looked up and discovered that apparently his counterpart had had the same thought for he too was looking up, dread written all over his faceplate.

Standing directly in front of them with identical grins were two Bumblebee's. And not just any Bumblebee's; there were two of the crazy Bumblebee.

"I see why Prime crashed,' Ratchet muttered.

"Actually we caused it," Sunstreaker said.

Ratchet turned and immediately wished he hadn't. Sitting at a nearby table, drinking energon in perfect syncrinazation were two Sunstreaker's. "Primus, no," Ratchet groaned. "No."

"I think Primus hates us," the other Ratchet said.

"For once I'm inclined to agree with you."

* * *

><p>Jazz was worried; very worried. <em>The Smuggler<em> was deserted; not once in all the years that he had known Bumblebee had the little bot ever left his ship floating in the middle of space unless it was a trap but even then he would hide nearby. Jazz was picking up five energy signatures but that didn't mean anything. There were several ways to fake energy signatures and Bumblebee knew each and every one of them. He entered one of the cargo bays, nanchuks in servo. After making sure the room was empty he put the nanchuks back in his subspace compartment and looked around. There was so much junk all over the place that Jazz could just barely make out the floor. Shaking his head Jazz said, "Looks like they stopped by the junkyard again." He nudged a pile of wires and spare parts that had once been a machine then walked out, not even noticing that some lights on the machine were now flashing.

* * *

><p>"Now which one of you is my Bumblebee?" Ratchet demanded, bending down so that he was now optic-to-optic with the two minibots.<p>

"I am," they said at the same time.

Ratchet groaned and buried his faceplate in his servos. "I give up," he declared.

"Don't be like that," his counterpart chided. 'After all they're your Bumblebee now."

"I don't want two of 'im. One's bad enough let alone two."

"Well at least you don't have two Sunstreaker's," Ratchet grumbled sourly.

"I don't want two of anything," Prime, who had come to an hour ago, said.

"But we're so much fun," one of the yellow twins cried, pouting.

"Just shut it," the other one snarled.

"Please knock it off," the gold Prowl begged. 'There is only so much I can take of this."

"I think this day's getting weirder by the minute," Bulkhead chimed in from his position in the corner so he wouldn't be in the way.

Suddenly the med-bay doors opened and Wheeljack poked his head in. 'Has anyone seen my…oh there it is!" he crossed the room and went straight to one of the Bumblebee's. He touched what had looked like a piece of dirt on the yellow chassis and if fell off into his servo. Immediately the mech shifted then changed back into _The Ark's_ Bumblebee.

"Wheeljack, what was that?" Prime asked.

"Oh just a new invention I've been working on," the inventor replied happily then left.

"Now that we've got that straightened out there's just one more thing to take care of," Ratchet sighed, looking at the twins.

Suddenly a bright, white light filled the room, forcing the Autobots to shutter their optics. When they un-shuttered them again the crazy Bumblebee, Bulkhead, Optimus, the other Ratchet, and the gold Prowl were nowhere to be seen.

A/N: 3 reviews and one more chapter to go.


	11. Home Again

Smugglers 2: Dimension Travel

Chapter 10: Home Again

A/N: Some of you were confused by the last chapter so here is a basic synopsis and description. If it still doesn't make sense please let me know.

Jazz inputs: Jazz got caught fooling around with the daughter of a very wealthy bot forcing him to leave that planet. After a couple of hours of floating around he came upon 'The Smuggler' which was abandoned as BB and the others were in the G1 verse. While searching for them Jazz accidentally activated the machine that transported them in the first place.

Wheeljack's invention: It's no bigger than a spot of dirt and is basically a holographic emitter, thus making it the G1 Bumblebee appear as the TFA Bumblebee.

Prank: The Bumblebee's used Wheeljack's invention to make it appear that there were two TFA Bumblebee's instead of just one. Plus Sideswipe painted himself yellow like his brother so instead of a pair of red and yellow twins there were two yellow twins. (He wanted to paint Sunstreaker red too but Sunny refused.)

Sorry if you got confused. That really wasn't my intention. If you still don't understand something let me know and I'll try to explain as much as I possibly can.

* * *

><p>Jazz had been in <em>The Smuggler's<em> red room, drinking energon when a bright light suddenly shone. He shielded his optics until the light disappeared then dropped his cube of energon on the floor and stared in shock at Bumblebee, Bulkhead, Prowl, Optimus and Ratchet who were standing in the middle of the room, looking slightly dazed.

"That was fun," Bumblebee said then suddenly realized where he was. "We're home," he squealed then began running around the room in circles.

"Where did you…" Jazz began. "How did you…" he stammered, seemingly incapable of finishing a sentence.

"I have no idea what just happened," Optimus admitted. "But I don't want it to happen again."

"Neither do I," Prowl said.

"Definitely not," Ratchet grumbled.

"Ugh," Bulkhead groaned. "I feel sick."

"Excuse me," the five turned to see Jazz standing there. "Care to explain?"

"Jazz!" Bumblebee launched himself at the other bot causing Jazz to stagger backwards. "When did you get here?"

"A couple of hours ago; I got a little worried when I couldn't find you guys," the blue-and-white bot said.

"Sorry about that," Bumblebee apologized. "But we traveled to another dimension and they had another me, an a Prowl, Ratchet and Optimus but they didn't have another Bulkhead," he looked dejected for a second then quickly brightened. "But I did get to meet a pair of twins named Sideswipe and Sunstreaker. They were real fun too. We played the best prank ever on the Prowl's and Optimus's and all four of them crashed," he said happily.

"I feel real sorry for those bots," Jazz muttered. "Real sorry."

Two hours later, after hearing all that had transpired while they were gone Jazz could only shake his head and ask, "Any idea how you guys wound up there?"

"Nope," Bumblebee replied cheerfully.

"Since it happened after our trip to the junkyard it is only logical to assume that something we picked up there caused us to travel through dimensions," Prowl said.

"Does that mean it'll happen again?" the yellow minibot asked excitedly.

"No!" Prowl, Optimus, Ratchet and Bulkhead all said sharply at the same time.

"That means we're going to dump everything we got from the junkyard," Optimus informed him.

Bumblebee crossed his arms and pouted. However he said nothing when they dumped all of the junk on a nearby uninhabited planet before getting away as fast as possible.

* * *

><p>Two Days Later<p>

"Brother, be looking at this!" Jetfire cried excitedly.

"It be junk," Jetstorm said.

"Leave it alone," Ironhide called.

"But it be pretty junk," the orange twin protested.

"I don't care; leave it alone."

Jetfire made a face at Ironhide's back and turned to go look at something else when his pede hit a rock, causing him to trip and fall, landing on a piece of metal that held several buttons.

"Are you all right?" Ironhide's worried faceplate suddenly appeared in front of him.

"I be fine," Jetfire assured him, sitting up with the help of his blue twin. "Is it being supposed to flash like that?" he asked, catching sight of something.

Ironhide and Jetstorm followed the small orange mech's gaze to where a panel attached to various spare parts and bright colored wires was blinking. "Slag," Ironhide cursed as a bright, white light appeared.

* * *

><p>"So what do ya suppose happened to 'em?" Ratchet grunted.<p>

"More than likely they were transported home," Prowl answered. He, Ratchet, and Prime were sitting in Prime's office discussing what had happened to their guests.

"I truly hope so," Prime sighed. "This meeting is over."

Prowl rose and retreated to his private quarters. He lay down on his berth, intending to catch a quick stasis nap only for his optics to fly wide open a second later when he felt a weight settle on his chassis. Optics wide, he stared at the identical orange and blue mechs perched on his chassis who appeared to be just as shocked.

It was then that Prowl commed him and said, "Prowl, we have a situation in the rec room. An unidentified bot just appeared there and he's demanding to know where the Jettwins are."

Prowl sighed and said, "I believe I know where they are."

A/N/N: I must have enough reviews of this story to make 170 reviews (I would really prefer 200 but I'll be fine with 170) before I will post the third installment. As incentive for you to do that the third part will go into great detail about the circumstances surrounding Bumblebee's accident and even a flashback to his and Bulkhead's first meeting.

A/N/N/N: I will not be telling what happens to Ironhide and the Jettwins. As far as I'm concerned their story ends here.

Also: if any of you want to write stories that go along with any of my Smugglers stories (or any story really) such as Bumblebee and Bulkhead's relationship through the years or what happens to Ironhide and the Jettwins you are more than welcome, all I ask is that you send me the name of the story and list my story as your inspiration. Also you can do fanart too if you send me the link (I would prefer the link be emailed if at all possible).

Thank you so much for reading this and I hope you will read the third story too!

Sincerely,

Gage39


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